They would ask me what actors I saw in the roles. I would tell them, and they’d say “Oh that’s interesting.” And that would be the end of it.
--Elmore Leonard, in 2000, on the extent of his input for Hollywood's adaptation of his novels

Monday, May 4, 2009

Alex Bledsoe's "Blood Groove"

Alex Bledsoe grew up in West Tennessee, an hour north of Graceland and twenty minutes from Nutbush. He now lives in Wisconsin.

Here he shares some thoughts on the cast of a cinematic adaptation of Blood Grove, his new novel:

This was an interesting exercise because, with the exception of the main character, I hadn’t really pondered actors for the characters in this book. I did have input on casting the heroine for the book trailer, but that’s not the same as imagining someone going through all the character’s emotions. As Jess Riley said in her post, I assumed that if a movie is ever made, I’d leave casting to the people who know about such things.

Blood Groove is a horror novel set in 1975 Memphis, so it’s a period piece. The protagonist, Eastern European vampire Rudolfo Vladimir Zginski (a.k.a."Rudy") was originally based on Mike Raven's look from the 1970 Hammer film Lust for a Vampire. Zginski is smooth, intelligent, and absolutely heartless, although there is an element of George Hamilton’s Love at First Bite ironic Dracula in there as well. Robert Carlyle, with a look similar to the one he had in 1999's Ravenous (the non-scruffy part), would be perfect.

The two African-American vampires, Leonardo and Olive, both appear to be teens as well. Olive is curvy and heavy-set, more Beyoncé than Whitney Houston. Despite being close to eighty years old Leonardo tries to appear as a typical 1975 teen, like Kevin Hooks of the seventies TV series The White Shadow and the 1975 film Aaron Loves Angela. Redneck vampire Toddy, who was turned at age seventeen in the sixties (and in the South that meant crew cuts and racism, not peace and love), would be a Southern Eminem/Michael Rapaport type.

“Compared to a novel, a film is like an economy pizza where there are no olives, no ham, no anchovies, no mushrooms, and all you’ve got is the dough.”
--Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin